1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for the cyclic preparation of a length of curds by draining a mixture of whey and curds in an upright column, formed by a permeable casing, which preparation cycle consists of at least three parts: a thickening phase and an extrusion phase from the column and a lateral discharge phase of the length of curds, the mixture being supplied to one end of the casing and a length of the thickened mass of curds being removed periodically at the other end of the casing.
2. Description of the Related Art
A method of this type is known in a number of variants and two main categories can be differentiated:
I. the method in which the whey-curbs mixture is supplied to the top end of each casing and the thickened length of curds is cut off and removed at the bottom end;
II. the method in which the whey-curbs mixture is supplied to the bottom end of each casing and the thickened length of curds is cut off and removed at the top end of the casing.
The first of the two main categories mentioned above can be further subdivided into two systems:
A. the method in which all the casings are firmly fixed and the moving parts, such as a temporary closure plate, a cut-off blade and conveyor means for the length of curds cut off, are located exclusively at the bottom edge of each casing;
B. the method in which a number of permeable casings are arranged in a ring and are jointly rotatable about a vertical centre line passing through the centre of the ring, which casings act in conjunction with a stationary table top.
Each of these known processes has the limitation that the cutting-loose and removal of the length of curds must be carried out with some caution in connection with the vulnerability of the thickened curds material. Therefore, in each known method a significant portion of the cycle time is spent on cutting off and removing the length of curds. This means that only a fraction (at most just over half) of the cycle time, which is, for example, 30 to 40 sec, remains for the actual drainage of the whey-curbs mixture.